scholarly journals Green Building Rating Systems (GBRSs)

Encyclopedia ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 998-1009
Author(s):  
Lia Marchi ◽  
Ernesto Antonini ◽  
Stefano Politi
Keyword(s):  
Energy Use ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Current Trend ◽  
Green Building ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Rating Systems ◽  
General Evaluation ◽  
Market Driven ◽  
Design Construction

Green Building Rating Systems (GBRSs) are typically third-party, voluntary, and market driven standards that measure buildings’ sustainability level by multi-criteria assessment, and encourage the adoption of environmentally, socially and economically sustainable practices in design, construction and operation of buildings (or neighborhoods). GBRSs aim at guiding and assessing the project throughout all its life cycle, thus limiting the negative impact on the environment, as well as on the building occupants’ health and well-being, and even reducing operational costs. Hundreds of GBRSs are now available worldwide, varying in approaches, application processes, and evaluation metrics. BREEAM, CASBEE, Green Star and LEED are among the most applied worldwide. Despite some differences, they all adhere to the same general evaluation structure: project performances ares measured using a set of relevant indicators, grouped per topics such as water management, energy use, materials, site qualities. Each assessed requirement is assigned a score/judgment, the total of which determines the level of sustainability achieved. In addition to regular updates, a current trend is to improve the effectiveness of protocols, making them more comprehensive and accurate, while keeping them easy to use.

scholarly journals How Rating Systems Support Regenerative Change in the Built Environment

2021 ◽  
pp. 131-144
Author(s):  
Melinda Orova ◽  
András Reith
Keyword(s):  
Built Environment ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Extensive Literature ◽  
Main Question ◽  
Rating Systems ◽  
Living Building Challenge

AbstractUrban development principles have evolved from sustainability, where the focus was on limiting the negative impact of urban environment, to restorative and regenerative sustainability, where positive impact is needed on global social and ecological systems. This recent paradigm shift requires the development of new tools for practitioners, like design methodologies, new technologies, and assessment methods.To measure the impact of sustainability on the built environment, several building-scale assessment tools exist. The question is how these widespread rating systems support restorative change in the built environment.The main question of the research is answered in three methodological steps. First, the goals of restorative sustainability are summarized from the available extensive literature, including the topics of Place, Energy, Water, Well-being, Carbon, Resources, Equity, Education, and Economics. Then different rating tools (Living Building Challenge, WELL, LEED, BREEAM, DGNB) are analysed how the considered issues and indicators in these rating tools are connected to restorative goals. Then these indicators are assessed how they serve that goal.The result of this study shows the main strengths and gaps in current wide-spread international rating tools regarding their support of restorative sustainability.

scholarly journals An Analysis of Variation in the Energy-Related Environmental Impacts of LEED Certified Buildings

2007 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 151-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Christopher Wedding ◽  
Douglas Crawford-Brown
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Water Consumption ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Green Building ◽  
Monte Carlo Analysis ◽  
Department Of Energy ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Future Research ◽  
The Us ◽  
Using Data

The US Green Building Council's (USGBC) LEED guidelines have become the dominant third-party certification program for “green” buildings in the US. Given that buildings use 37% of all energy and 68% of all electricity while contributing substantially to air emission, waste generation, and water consumption issues in the US, one of LEED's purposes is to address the environmental impacts of energy use in buildings. This research analyzes (1) how well the LEED guidelines measure these impacts and (2) which parameters create the most variation among these impacts. Environmental impacts here refer to emissions of carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, mercury, and particulate matter (PM10); solid waste; nuclear waste; and water consumption. Using data from the US Department of Energy, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the US EPA Energy Star program, and the USGBC, among others, models using Monte Carlo analysis were created to simulate the range of impacts of LEED-certified buildings. Various metrics and statistics were calculated to highlight the significance of variation in these impacts. Future research needs and implications of the results for LEED version 3.0 are also discussed.

scholarly journals THE NEED OF ITEGRATION OF HEALTH ASPECTS IN SUSTAINABILITY BY URBAN-ARCHITECTURAL MULTICRITERIA ASSESSMENT TOOLS

space&FORM ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (47) ◽  
pp. 45-66
Author(s):  
Paweł Horn ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Architectural Design ◽  
Public Awareness ◽  
Green Building ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Integral Approach ◽  
Rating Systems ◽  
Urban Structures ◽  
Planning And Design ◽  
Investment Process

Current situation of worsening of the health of individuals and societies requires response in architectural design. The article discusses possibilities for integration of health aspects and well-being factors in investment process in pursue of sustainability, by utilizing the advantages of the green building rating systems and evaluation tools which are already present in international and national practice. The aim of this article is to indicate the need for an integral approach in creating a built environment that allows for a healthy life in accordance with the location and current social and other problems. The author believes that the recognition of architectural objects as an integral part of complex urban structures is a necessary approach that determines the integration of the discussed aspects in design. The process should also include raising public awareness, focusing on better planning and design tools, and systems for collecting data and measuring health impacts. Integrating health parameters with already existing sustainable design procedures and standards is crucial. The core of the study was the observation and analysis of the already built housing environment, planned and designed according to the principles of sustainable development, in order to determine the degree of taking into account environmental elements and aspects of health on the object and urban scale.

The Construction Specification Institute's Sustainable Reporting Data Format: GreenFormat

2007 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Pat A Hooper
Keyword(s):  
Green Building ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Forest Stewardship Council ◽  
Rating Systems ◽  
Building Product ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Material Transportation ◽  
Construction Specification ◽  
Design Firms ◽  
Reporting Data

The increased utilization of green building rating systems, federal and state sustainable building programs, and the interest in green building by private commercial and residential builders has generated a wide range of building product manufacturer claims about the sustainable attributes of their products. Evaluating those manufacturer claims, which range from “environmentally friendly,” “low VOC,” “all natural,” to “100% recycled,” is a major challenge to specifiers, professional designers, and others who must make product selections to meet the rating system requirements. While there are independent third party certifications from the Forest Stewardship Council, Scientific Certification System (SCS), and Green Guard, the majority of the rating systems use a descriptor as a requirement such as “rapidly renewable,” for which there is no current certification. Some professional designers want information on material transportation and extraction, or product deconstruction or recycling. Some large design firms have created environmental questionnaires for manufacturers to complete; however, the questionnaires are not standardized. Manufacturers are faced with completing different questionnaires from a variety of major design firms. The Construction Specification Institute (CSI), the publisher of MasterFormat, has created a sustainable reporting data guide named GreenFormat©. The intent of this article is to describe GreenFormat, its data categories, and to provide background on the informational transparency.

scholarly journals Environmental Product Declarations as Data Source for the Environmental Assessment of Buildings in the Context of Level(s) and DGNB: How Feasible Is Their Adoption?

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 6143
Author(s):  
Pamela Del Rosario ◽  
Elisabetta Palumbo ◽  
Marzia Traverso
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Green Building ◽  
Environmental Data ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Rating Systems ◽  
Building Site ◽  
Life Cycle Stages ◽  
Environmental Product Declarations ◽  
Building Assessment ◽  
Data Source

This study aims to examine the feasibility of using environmental product declarations (EPDs) as a data source for life-cycle assessment (LCA) in two sustainable building assessment schemes–the pilot version of the European framework Level(s) and the German system DGNB (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Nachhaltiges Bauen). An EPD is a standardized and third-party certified label to communicate product-specific environmental data based on LCA. Some green building rating systems consider it a robust LCA data source and encourage its use over generic data. This work evaluates the environmental profile of the envelope of an office building in the context of level(s) and DGNB adopting EPD as a data source. The results indicate that the EPDs did not cover the mandatory scope of the schemes. Furthermore, there was a lack of EPDs appropriate to the geographical context of the case study, leading to the adoption of EPDs of products from places other than the building site and an overestimation of the environmental impacts of transportation. Moreover, the need for EPDs considering suitable and comprehensive scenarios as well as life-cycle stages beyond the product stage is highlighted. This gap, in fact, hinders the performance of a complete LCA within the analyzed building assessment schemes when relying solely on EPDs as a data source. With this paper, we wish to encourage the further development of EPDs related to the integration of more life-cycle modules and more comprehensive scenarios, considering the direction of the latest amendment of the ISO 15804 for EPDs of construction products.

Retailers targeting children with set collection promotions: the child’s perspective

2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (6) ◽  
pp. 643-658 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maree Thyne ◽  
Kirsten Robertson ◽  
Leah Watkins ◽  
Olly Casey
Keyword(s):  
Focus Groups ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Clear Understanding ◽  
Older Children ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Social Currency ◽  
Qualitative Focus Groups

Purpose Children are familiar with retail outlets (especially supermarkets) and the reality of shopping from an increasingly early age. In turn, retailers are actively engaging this young market, targeting them through various promotional strategies. One popular strategy adopted by grocery retailers is giveaway collectible set items. The purpose of this paper is to question the ethicality of such campaigns, within the framework of vulnerable consumers by examining children’s opinions of the campaigns and the supermarkets who run them, and the drivers of children’s involvement in the campaigns. Design/methodology/approach Qualitative focus groups were employed with 67 children aged five to ten years. Focus groups were made up of children in similar age groups to cluster responses by age and allow for comparisons. Thematic analysis was undertaken and responses were coded into themes. Findings Children were initially driven to collect through promotional advertising or because a third party offered them a collectible. The drivers for subsequent collecting differed between age groups, with younger children more focussed on themes around play and older children (seven and above) collecting through habit, because it was a craze amongst their peers and therefore the collections became items of social currency. Children’s perceptions of the supermarkets motivations also differed by age. Younger children thought supermarkets gave the collectibles away as “gifts” for altruistic reasons. The older children articulated a clear understanding of the economic motives of the organisation including: to attract children to their stores, to encourage pester power and to increase revenue by encouraging customers to buy more. The older children questioned the ethics of the collectible campaigns, referring to them as scams. Research limitations/implications The findings extend the important discussion on the nature of children’s vulnerability to advertising by showing that the children’s vulnerability stretches beyond their ability to understand advertising intent. Despite older children in the present study being cognisant of retailers’ intentions they were still vulnerable to the scheme; the embeddedness of the scheme in the social lives of the children meant they lacked agency to opt out of it. Further, the finding that the scheme transcended boundaries in the children’s lives, for instance, being associated with social currency at school, highlights the potential negative impact such schemes can have on the well-being of children. Originality/value Until now, research has investigated the motivations that children have to collect, but previous studies have focussed on collections which have been determined by the children. This paper presents the opinions and perceptions of the children who are directly targeted by commercial organisations to collect and raises concerns around the ethicality of such schemes.

PERFORMANCE OF A GREEN BUILDING'S INDOOR ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY ON BUILDING OCCUPANTS IN SOUTH AFRICA

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clinton Aigbavboa ◽  
Wellington Didibhuku Thwala
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Environmental Quality ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Green Building ◽  
Building Design ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Green Buildings ◽  
The Body ◽  
Indoor Environmental Quality ◽  
Health Implications

Indoor environmental quality (IEQ) is important to the health, comfort, and well-being of building occupants. Unsatisfactory IEQ is associated with a number of phenomena, most notably, sick building syndrome (SBS), building-related illnesses (BRIs), and multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS), which have major negative effects on productivity. However, green building investors (owners) are not only concerned about reducing the negative impact of their buildings on the environment, but also about the potentially negative impact green buildings can have on their employees' productivity. This research sets out to address, through a questionnaire survey in South Africa, what constitutes the determinants of green building occupants' satisfaction with the IEQ elements of a green building and the health implications of a building's IEQ on the building occupants. Data analysis (involving a one-sample t-test) reveals some interesting findings in regard to what constitutes the determinants of green building occupants' satisfaction with the IEQ elements and the health implications of the IEQ elements of a five-star green rated building in South Africa. Findings from the survey revealed that the occupants of the building were not satisfied with the green building's IEQ, most especially the ineffectiveness of blocking natural and artificial lighting. Also, it was revealed that the IEQ with particular reference to the noise level and ventilation of the space has some serious health implications for the building occupants. The occupants' evaluation revealed that the major health issues from which they suffer include fatigue, headache, common cold, coughing, and influenza, and these affect their productivity and performance. Since building occupants are a rich source of information about IEQ assessment and its effect on productivity, the study can be used to assess the performance of green buildings, identify areas needing improvement, and provide useful feedback to designers and operators about specific aspects of green building design features and operating strategies that need improvement. This study adds to the body of knowledge on green buildings' IEQ performance.

scholarly journals World and Russian experience in certification of green buildings

2021 ◽  
Vol 937 (4) ◽  
pp. 042025
Author(s):  
Artem Shvets ◽  
Svetlana Sheina
Keyword(s):  
Negative Impact ◽  
Green Building ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Green Buildings ◽  
Green Technology ◽  
Global Trend ◽  
The Disabled ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Elderly Health

Abstract The issue of ecology has been under discussion for a long time. In construction, there is such a concept as green construction, which means the use of technologies for the construction of buildings with less negative impact on the environment and humans. Over time, green building has become a global trend, and there was a need building certification for green technology. This article discusses the global and Russian certification systems for green buildings such as BREEAM, LEED, WELL, Fitwel, STO NOSTROY. Their comparative analysis is carried out, what aspects each of them considers, what they have in common and different. The application of these standards for certification of green buildings is considered on the example of STO NOSTROY and Fitwel for homes for the disabled and the elderly -health care institutions in which guests need constant care and attention, where maintaining their health and well-being is the most important task.

The role of production and non-production factors in the formation of male mortality (on the example of two Arctic single-industry towns)

2020 ◽  
Vol 60 (11) ◽  
pp. 738-741
Author(s):  
Maria S. Bryleva
Keyword(s):  
Negative Impact ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Malignant Neoplasms ◽  
Male Mortality ◽  
Occupational Factors ◽  
Copper Nickel ◽  
Production Factors ◽  
Single Industry ◽  
Working Age ◽  
Quality Of Medical Care

Introduction. One of the priority socio-economic and medical-demographic problems in Russia is the high mortality. The study aim is to identify the most significant factors that determine the mortality on the example of two single-industry towns. Materials and methods. Mortality in two single-industry towns specializing in copper-nickel production, differenced in climate, environmental, and socio-economic indicators, was studied using age-standardized indicators averaged over 8 years (2010-2017). Results. In Monchegorsk, compared to Russia, with similar non-production characteristics, working-age mortality from cardiovascular diseases (CVD) was higher by 49.0%, from malignant neoplasms (MN) by 34.7%, from diseases of the digestive system by 35.5%, which confirms the negative impact of occupational factors on the mortality of the population of a single-industry city. In Norilsk city, with the worst characteristics of the environment and climate, compared to Monchegorsk, mortality from CVD was lower in working age by 40.6%, in post-working age by 41.4%; from MN - in working age lower by 37.2% that shows the compensating influence of socio-economic factors on mortality. Conclusion. Risk factors for increased mortality rates in single-industry towns with copper-nickel enterprises are the influence of harmful occupational factors, as well as environmental pollution. Along with primary prevention, an effective mechanism for reducing mortality is to improve socio-economic well-being, and the quality of medical care.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the psychosocial condition of students in Poland and Ukraine

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Piotr Długosz ◽  
Yana
Keyword(s):  
Distance Learning ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Survey Method ◽  
Psychosocial Condition ◽  
On Line ◽  
Line Survey ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Emotional Condition ◽  
Double Measurement

The article presents the results of research on psychosocial condition among Polish and Ukrainian students during the quarantine. The aim of the research was to verify the impact of the pandemic and its accompanying phenomena on the well-being of youth. In order to achieve this goal, the CAWI on-line survey method with double measurement was used. The first measurement carried out at the beginning of the quarantine resulted in 3659 filled out surveys in Poland and 739 in Ukraine. The second measurement conducted at the end of distance learning brought 1978 filled out surveys in Poland and 411 in Ukraine. The results of research indicate that the quarantine had a negative impact on the psychosocial condition of youth. The deterioration of emotional condition and the increase in mental disorders has been observed. Due to the pandemic and distance learning, the mental health of youth deteriorated significantly. Polish youth were negatively influenced by the pandemic to a greater extent than young Ukrainians.

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